Shameless fangirling
I'm still on the "I just finished an awesome book" high, so forgive my chaotic writing. :P
I picked up my first Carole Nelson Douglas book (Good Night, Mr. Holmes), according to the release date, in '90 or '91 when I was in my Sherlock Holmes phase.
I picked up my first Midnight Louie book in the summer of '98, which I spent in Cleveland. I was working at Kaufmann's at the time and had apparently finished my current book, so on my lunch hour I wandered down the hall to the bookstore in search of something new. I think the one I got was Cat in a Crimson Haze--it was fairly early in the series, and I spent the next few weeks trying to pick up the previous books so I could be all caught up. I don't know why it took me so long to try the series, considering what a cat freak I am.
Anyway, twelve years later and twenty-one books in total (or twenty-three, counting the mezzanine Crystal Days and Crystal Nights, which are more prequels than anything else, and which were later expanded into four novellas), I've just (finally) finished Cat in a Topaz Tango, which sat on my bookshelf for THREE MONTHS before I finally read it. The up side of this is that it's now only six months until the release of Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme, according to the official website.
We all know the phenomenon wherein the later installments of a series tend to follow a certain curve of declining quality. That hasn't happened with this series. Each book is as much of a hell of a ride as the last, and the sheer complexity of plot threads separating and coming back together and interweaving is mind-boggling. There are ongoing mysteries that you know just won't be clear until the very end. The characters are all awesome, and not just the central ones--there's an amazing cast of supporting characters who all get a turn to shine, and I love almost all of them (Temple and Matt and Kit and Danny and Molina and Electra and Louise and Ma Barker and the Fontanas [all of them!] and...); the added complexities as various characters meet and interact are just getting fascinating.
Louie, of course, the cat after whom the series is titled, is the centermost character and the star of stars, as a cat should be.
And the fact that this enormous series comprises one coherent, planned-out story arc is just... awe-inspiring. Maybe when the last book comes out I'll have the chance to read the entire thing, start to finish, and get the whole picture all at once.
Looking at the Wikipedia entry, I see that I'm missing several short stories in both the Midnight Louie and Irene Adler series, which bugs me because I'm compulsive. I'm also a book behind on the Delilah Street series. I've sadly neglected my reading over the last year and a half--my to-read stack has taken over, and contains some of the other authors I normally keep up on. This must be rectified! (As soon as I finish a knitting project or two.)
So, to summarize, if you like cats, or mysteries, or Las Vegas, these books are awesome. Every single one of them.
EDIT: And in the months I've been carrying the book around, I've misplaced the dust jacket. Dammit.
I picked up my first Carole Nelson Douglas book (Good Night, Mr. Holmes), according to the release date, in '90 or '91 when I was in my Sherlock Holmes phase.
I picked up my first Midnight Louie book in the summer of '98, which I spent in Cleveland. I was working at Kaufmann's at the time and had apparently finished my current book, so on my lunch hour I wandered down the hall to the bookstore in search of something new. I think the one I got was Cat in a Crimson Haze--it was fairly early in the series, and I spent the next few weeks trying to pick up the previous books so I could be all caught up. I don't know why it took me so long to try the series, considering what a cat freak I am.
Anyway, twelve years later and twenty-one books in total (or twenty-three, counting the mezzanine Crystal Days and Crystal Nights, which are more prequels than anything else, and which were later expanded into four novellas), I've just (finally) finished Cat in a Topaz Tango, which sat on my bookshelf for THREE MONTHS before I finally read it. The up side of this is that it's now only six months until the release of Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme, according to the official website.
We all know the phenomenon wherein the later installments of a series tend to follow a certain curve of declining quality. That hasn't happened with this series. Each book is as much of a hell of a ride as the last, and the sheer complexity of plot threads separating and coming back together and interweaving is mind-boggling. There are ongoing mysteries that you know just won't be clear until the very end. The characters are all awesome, and not just the central ones--there's an amazing cast of supporting characters who all get a turn to shine, and I love almost all of them (Temple and Matt and Kit and Danny and Molina and Electra and Louise and Ma Barker and the Fontanas [all of them!] and...); the added complexities as various characters meet and interact are just getting fascinating.
Louie, of course, the cat after whom the series is titled, is the centermost character and the star of stars, as a cat should be.
And the fact that this enormous series comprises one coherent, planned-out story arc is just... awe-inspiring. Maybe when the last book comes out I'll have the chance to read the entire thing, start to finish, and get the whole picture all at once.
Looking at the Wikipedia entry, I see that I'm missing several short stories in both the Midnight Louie and Irene Adler series, which bugs me because I'm compulsive. I'm also a book behind on the Delilah Street series. I've sadly neglected my reading over the last year and a half--my to-read stack has taken over, and contains some of the other authors I normally keep up on. This must be rectified! (As soon as I finish a knitting project or two.)
So, to summarize, if you like cats, or mysteries, or Las Vegas, these books are awesome. Every single one of them.
EDIT: And in the months I've been carrying the book around, I've misplaced the dust jacket. Dammit.